A strong lates market is expected to offset the impact of the looming general election on travel sales.
Peter Buckell, Global Travel Lounge managing director, said so far this year he has seen sales in his shops return to 2008 levels, after a fall of up to 20% in 2009.
While he expects business to drop off as people focus first with the election on May 6 then the football World Cup in June and July, he believes there will be less of an impact thanks to a strong lates market.
He added: “The prices will be through the roof, everybody will want to get away at the same time and we’ll have a very busy September and October
for departures.”
The Co-operative Travel managing director Mike Greenacre said after a strong February and March when business was 17% up year on year, sales had shown signs of tailing off, blaming uncertainty over the election.
However, he said having a date for the election might now spark a recovery and he expected a rush whenever England’s World Cup run ends.
“I just hope we don’t have a hung parliament. We need clarity about what direction we are going in as a country, particularly with the debts we have at the moment,” he said.
Greenacre echoed complaints this week from business leaders about Labour’s planned increase in National Insurance.
“If you put up National Insurance you are taxing jobs and employers will have to look at the cost of employment and how many people they are employing, and you don’t want that,” he said.